Public Safety Building Committee re-examines sites

BY MELISSA MCKEON MMCKEON@HOLDENLANDMARK.COM

Thursday

Jun 14, 2007 at 12:01 AM

HOLDEN - After two proposals since last fall for two separate public safety facilities resulted in disappointing size and configurations, public safety building committee members last week voted to reconsider two other possibilities and add a new site to the list.

The committee has asked architects to take a look at a nearly 2.5-acre site across from Dawson School and adjacent to the town's pool and recreation areas as a possible location for a new police station. The site is currently owned by the state in an area checkerboarded with state and town properties, some of which now house pieces of the town's recreation programs.

Public Safety Building Committee Chair Christopher Lucchesi said proposals for acquiring the state-owned land could involve a trading of property with the state, rather than a cash outlay. The acreage is a small part of a larger plot of state-owned property.

"It's on a main road next to a school, next to a town recreation," Police Chief George Sherrill said. "I'm very excited about that site."

The site is also in an area of town where planning board members have told the committee they see extensive future growth. The acreage also doesn't have the limitations of the recently proposed Damon House site, where adjacent land would need to be acquired to house barely adequate parking.

The proposal for architects to consider the feasibility of that site joins two other "secondary options" that Lucchesi said the committee would like to consider.

Members voted last week to ask architects to reconsider a different part of the current fire station site, with the building moved back to a flatter area. A proposal to renovate and expand the existing fire station, which is built on a slope, yielded a building that members criticized as too large earlier this year.

They also asked the architect to look at several house lots across from the current police station between the Wachusett Regional High School driveway and Kendall Road, called the Bateman site. That site was originally rejected because of the need to purchase the properties.

Members early in this round rejected the idea of adding to the cost of the project by buying large pieces of property.

Though no vote has been taken to reverse direction or reject the plans before them, Lucchesi said the committee is just considering secondary options.

"What the committee is really struggling with right now is the availability of viable sites for either of these facilities," he said.

Lucchesi charged the committee at its June 6 meeting to re-evaluate its direction.

That meeting, Lucchesi said, resulted in a great deal of concern from the committee, with members worried that they'd wasted time on proposals that weren't feasible.

Committee members have spent the last six months whittling down sites, considering needs assessments and reviewing what architects think could fit both the site and the department needs.

This is the third public safety building committee. Town voters twice rejected funding for two previous proposals for a combined facility on the current fire station site.

With an eye to public input, always a prominent goal for this committee, a new Web site will keep the public informed of the committee's progress.

Residents can go to www.holdenpsbc.org for updates on what's happening as plans progress.

The committee's next meeting is June 20 at the Holden Municipal Light Department at 6:30 p.m. Two public commentary sessions are scheduled for each meeting.